Feel like this had the makings of a good mystery, but the twists were predictable and nothing really shocked me. Solid writing from Clarke as always, however.

I'm going through my Netgalley back log and forgot that I had also requested and read this from my library ages ago (and that I had it on here to review - that's the trouble when you requested so many books when you first started out and then got overwhelmed with all the books!). Anyways, I can't remember much about this, but I know I enjoyed it, as I have with most of all Cat Clarke's other books.

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

I did have mixed feelings about this one. I couldn’t really connect with the characters or the storyline in this one. It was well paced enough and the action started straight away but it just kind of dwindled from there unfortunately.

This is a heavy yet important book dealing with mental health, and a gripping mystery as Evan, the protagonist, tries to figure out why her future stepbrother was in a car with three strangers, who are killed in an accident on the night of Evan's mother's wedding. A powerful and a far from lighthearted read!

When Evan’s step-brother Lewis is the only survivor of a car crash, the media is quick to blame him for everything. Something doesn’t add up for Evan and as she tries to figure out what really happened that night, she finds herself confronting things she didn’t expect to.

We Are Young is a thoroughly readable YA novel that doesn’t feel too “issue-y” despite dealing with suicide, mental ill-health, and emotional abuse.

I absolutely love Cat Clarke and this did not disappoint!

Her writing is going from strength to strength and I love how accessible and contemporary this new story is.

Cat Clarke is such a unique voice in the YA community. Every single book of hers manages to tackle something difficult and reading them is like not being able to draw your eyes away from a car crash. In 'We Are Young', I mean that entirely literally. The story follows Evan, trying to work out why her step-brother is the only survivor of a car crash, with three other passengers dead. As she unpicks the truth, she gets more than she bargained for as drugs and abuse bubble to the surface.

I read the whole thing in one sitting. The pacing was so intriguing, as you got just the right amount of information, but there was always one nugget withheld that kept me turning the pages. As if the drugs issue wasn't enough, there's also a toxic blended family, a rocky relationship with Evan's dad, and a music career that could be slipping through her fingers. How Cat Clarke manages to balance all three elements is absolute witchcraft.

If you've read her other titles, then you don't need encouraging to pick this one up. But, if you haven't, then I'd really recommend starting her. The story is just so strong and you'll get gripped by her writing style from the first chapter. A slow-burn, low key thriller/mystery that needs to be on your TBR, asap!

Absolutely loved this for its strong diverse rep and compelling story. Contemp fans have a lot to satisfy them here - family and friend dynamics in glorious subtleties, unflinching exploration of a range of issues without feeling exploitative, inaccurate or sensationalised. As with my previous experience of Cat Clarke, I found the main character Evan easy to relate to, with realistic flaws - she's just doing her best to cope in a believable teen life in modern Britain. I'd strongly recommend this for general contemp fans, but also for anyone looking particularly for good LGBT and/or mental health rep, or who enjoys stories featuring musicians, or emphasising friendship and family issues.

We Are Young starts right in the middle of the action as someone calls the emergency services from the site of a car crash. It’s horrific. There are details that I may never erase from my brain. It hooks you in. There were four people in the car, and only one survives.
The story then moves to Evan, who is at her mother’s wedding, and does not seem to be enjoying herself. Her mum is marrying Breakfast Tim, a radio show host. Evan doesn’t love him, but she’s happy for her mum, and she’s trying to enjoy herself. Or at least act like it. At one point in the evening she has sex with Marcus Bloom, and she reflects on this a lot, not least because it was unprotected, and Marcus is a total creep.
Tim’s son, Lewis isn’t at the wedding. Evan and her mum talk about it. They’re close and her mum can talk to her about anything. She trusts Evan and is always asking her things like “what did I do to deserve you?” but to Evan, this sometimes feels oppressive, like a warning that she can’t make mistakes and disappoint her mum. Evan is trying to be happy for her mum, to make the night enjoyable. Then the call comes: Lewis was in the accident. He is the one who survived. But, he’s in a coma.
Tim and Lewis didn’t have an especially close relationship before the accident. Evan can empathise, because her relationship with her own father is strained. Her brother, Billy, adores their dad, but Evan knows something that Billy doesn’t, and it makes her angry. Her dad has an alcohol problem, and he’s still battling with it during the story.
Evan doesn’t love Tim either, she doesn’t hate him, but she starts to notice odd things in how Tim is behaving around Lewis, and the way he acts in general, and she doesn’t always like what she sees. He puts her in an awkward position on his radio show, it makes her really uncomfortable and it changes everything, jeopardising her friendships with Daze and Sid. Evan sees a different side to Tim, and it’s very different to the Tim who cooks for them, buys them expensive presents and encourages them to have a relationship with Harry.
One of Evan’s old friends, Karolina, was in the accident. Evan struggles with her feelings about this because the two of them weren’t really friends any more. They had grown apart, and Evan is unprepared for the effect that Karolina’s death has on her. She has other friends now, Daze and Sid, who are both her exes and the three of them are in a band together. Somehow, it’s not awkward at all, and I love their friendship group.
Evan and Lewis weren’t close, but Evan spends a lot of time at the hospital with him, talking to him and reading. When the press blame Lewis, and bring up drugs and other issues which may have caused the accident Evan feels for Lewis and starts to look into what happened. Her dad is doing the same, but Harry is a reporter and Evan doesn’t know if she can or should trust him. Watching Evan work through her issues with her dad was one of the most interesting parts of the story for me. What Harry and Evan find out will change everything, and it gave an ending to the story that I could never have predicted.
We Are Young is an action-packed, gripping book, with lots of interesting issues. There is never a dull moment. Cat Clarke’s writing is wonderful, and if you haven’t read this book yet, you should definitely get on that.

Back once again with another Cat Clarke book, this time the actual year of publication. Reviews of most of her books can be found here. I found Cat Clarke by her YA debut and I have followed her since. She an auto-buy author. Basically, I really like her writing and have high expectation of her.

This book does involve a band and the main character really like playing music, but it not really a music book. They only have gig practices and only pop artists are named. I mention because someone else said they thought the vinyls indicated it as a heavy music book. No, they broken vinyls that the thing to play attention to and obviously to match Clarke's other books.

Evan Page is suspicious about her Stepbrother's car accident that involved four people that didn't belong to the same circle. Basically, this is a murder mystery involving drugs and spoilery things. I did miss that Evan's last name was Page so I was real confuse when people would call her that. Did she go through a name change and it was somehow not picked up in certain places during the revisions. Nope, I'm just Dyslexic.

Characters and their relationships with each other play a big part. Different families dynamic are explored within Evan own family and her interactions with the families of those in the car, as she tries to solve the mystery of why.

Within the Band, there is a triangle of Exs with Evan at the centre. Evan is bi, Sid and Daze are friends and that events of the novel explore her feeling towards them. It's a nice addiction. I like it.

This book deals with a lot, most of it going into spoilers. (I do Trigger warnings in my labels). Clarke manages to handle all these well. The ending is slightly preachy, but also was a coherent and is a satisfying ending. With it being a hard subject, there no real satisfying ending of this book.

Overall, I give this 5/5 stars for Earned Guitars. In terms of mystery, I never guess exactly what was going to go down, which I often do and the writing is good as usual. Cat Clarke continues to breaks hearts. Breakfast Tim will stay with me and I will wonder about his career.

This is the first book by Cat Clarke that I've read and thought that the plot and storyline were very good. What I was a bit disappointed with was that the sixth word in the book was an 'f' word and that by the end of chapter 1, our young female protagonist had drunk excessive amounts of alcohol and had meaningless sex.

The storyline is full of modern issues, such as parents' divorces, sexual orientation, music etc. One
of the main issues this book deals with is suicide and death and coping with the death of a young person and how it affects their family.

The main characters are well developed and we get to 'see' inside their heads. Most are likeable, except the one or two we're not supposed to like.

I would say that this is written for the older teenager.

This book didn't suit my reading taste and sadly I couldn't get into the story. Therefore I did not finish this book.

I was intrigued by this book as Cat Clarke seems to be a very renowned author but somehow I have never read a book by this author.
This book deals with such a sensitive topic! Straight away there's drama that hooks you. I could not put this book down. I felt involved in all the mystery and I was desperate to reach the end.
I would definitely recommend this book, but be warned there are sensitive subjects in this book.

Another Cat Clarke success, but at a heavy cost. It’ll put you through the full range of emotions, but the messages are so important to be heard.
When Evan’s mum marries new partner Tim it should be a happy moment. But on the same night his son, Lewis, is involved in a car accident.
Three teens die and Lewis is in a coma. Rumours about the crash are rife, and people are curious about why four people who don’t know each other were together.
With the help of friends, her father and a bit of luck, Evan decides to pursue the truth behind the rumours and find out what really happened. Along the way she has some issues of her own to deal with, and gets to expose her new step-father’s controlling behaviour before things get too bad.
There’s a lot going on, and there were times everything felt rather too easily resolved. That aside, there’s definitely plenty to think about here.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for my thoughts.

I've come to expect great things from Cat Clarke and she has yet to disappoint. This is a highly readable book and I would recommend it to any reader looking for a contemporary mystery with strong family themes.

Gripping from the outset, this is a compelling mystery that is full of the moral dilemmas & intense emotions that Clarke does so well. Excellent.

This book was great but definitely not one if you're not into dark books. The tagline on the cover sums it up perfectly, the further you read into this book the darker and darker it gets and considering that it starts with a very gory car accident, that's pretty dark.

At it's heart though, this is a book about family. It's about how family can be pulled together or pulled apart and how important it is for a family to support and trust each other, no matter what. Throughout the book, you see Evan getting closer to her step-brother, Lewis, as hard as that is, as she supports him at the hospital and tries to uncover the truth behind the crash.

This was a great mystery and showed some really interesting and easy to like characters. It was a really great read but not for the faint of heart.

What a wonderful read this was! I couldn’t put down We Are Young – I was desperate to get back to reading it whilst I was at work because it just grips you and makes you want to solve the mystery.

We Are Young is a young adult mystery centered around a car crash that leaves one sole survivor. Everyone seems to think it’s a simple case of being drugs related, but Evan, our main character, believes that there’s more than meets the eye…

Evan is such a likeable main character – she’s flawed, relatable and very sharp. One thing I liked as well is that she’s dealing with conflicting emotions over her relationships, which have been with both boys and girls. However, this wasn’t the focus of the book and was just a part of her character makeup, thus normalising these feelings which can only be a positive!

Another thing is the focus on mental health with this book touching upon the devastating effects that depression and bipolar can have. Cat Clarke writes about mental health issues perfectly, and We Are Young is no exception.

I would absolutely recommend this book for fans of Cat’s previous books, as well as lovers of YA mysteries and contemporaries.

Evan’s mother marries the local radio DJ, ‘Breakfast Tim’, and on the same day, they get a call that her brand new step-brother is the sole survivor of a horrific car crash. A media frenzy starts and blame is placed on her step-brother Lewis – a stoner with no friends. Everyone thinks the crash was drugs-related, except Evan. Things don’t quite add up. So with the help of her journalist and recovering alcoholic father, she sets out to find out what really happened that night.

I read my first Cat Clarke book last year, which was Girlhood, and I adored it. (You can read my review here). So when I heard that another Cat Clarke book was to be released this year I was super excited, and We Are Young did not disappoint.

We Are Young is an outstanding contemporary novel. It featured a lot of heavy but important topics such as death, suicide, mental health, alcoholism, drugs, dangers from unprotected sex, emotional abuse, etc. So, while the cover makes the story appear lighthearted and fun – and while it does have it’s moments – it really is a darker story. A story about finding your way through bad times. The main focus of We Are Young was mental health in young adults. It didn’t romanticise depression or bipolar but it highlighted the dangers of not seeking help, or not having any support network.

We Are Young was pretty exceptional in the way that it had a heavy mystery aspect but also did have some pretty awesome character arcs with some really great development. Equally plot and character driven. I especially loved Evan, our foul-mouthed, fierce, determined, but kind protagonist. There were also some really great themes of friendship and I loved Evan and her dynamics with her two exes, Sid and Daze. I especially loved Evans relationship with her father, mother, and brother and her step-brother.

There was a little bit of romance, Evan is bisexual and her LI, Daze, is a lesbian, but it wasn’t at the forefront at all and it was very slow burn. It was sort of a lovers-to-friends-to-lovers kind of thing and I really loved it.

We Are You is a raw, angry, and unflinchingly honest book about the lack of support for people with mental health problems. It’s a call to arms for more mental health support programmes for young adults. Overall, We Are Young is a powerful and gripping novel that I highly recommend.